UKIP MEP: We'll Take SIX Seats At General Election

26 Sep 2014

DONCASTER, United Kingdom – Steven Wolfe, UKIP Euro MP for North-West England, has claimed the party will win six seats at the general election next year. The former solicitor told Breitbart London that the party’s aspiration to take three or four seats “would be a miracle, but I think we will exceed that”.

Whilst six seats may sound modest, UKIP are badly undermined by the first past the post system that “make it almost impossible for small parties to get a foothold”. But he believes the party will make the gains because of the “great strides” they have made toward professionalising their operation.

Wolfe admits there are still problems, particularly with funding. He said: “the Labour Party took decades to make a breakthrough, we’ll do it much quicker than they did. Our problem is that the major parties find it easy to outspend us, we need to find ways to raise a lot more money.

“In my constituency we have a number of superb branches, particularly in Oldham and Bolton. They are highly organised and they get results, if I was able to bring them a lot more donations they would find it easy to beat the older parties.

“UKIP is all about energising the grassroots of politics, we are not anti-politics, quite the opposite. We are making politics relevant to people who had previously given up. We take people from all walks of life, last year our conference was very old, white and middle class but this year we have a cross section of everyone”.

When asked how much the party should professionalise Wolfe argued that UKIP has come close it the right balance between being a serious party but also giving amateurs a chance. He also said that UKIP would never support state funding of political parties, saying “why should the public pay for a load of politicians when they are struggling themselves”.

Wolfe identified Clacton, Thurrock and Thanet are UKIPs kay targets but also predicted the media had underestimated the party’s support in Northern England. “Walking around this conference almost everyone I speak to has a Northern accent, there’s a huge contingent from Yorkshire and plenty of people from the North-West too”.